A few theocratic members of the Texas State Board of Education are having a national impact. They are using tax dollars to mislead children with religious propaganda, falsely asserting a religious basis to America's founding structure, and removing, of all people, Thomas Jefferson from a list of influential thinkers. Texas textbooks have a national influence while federal science and history standards have been neglected.

Let's make sure our community's voice is heard! Here are four things you can do right now to make a difference.

If you live in Texas: Join a protest on the steps of the state capitol in Austin on Sunday, May 16 at 11:00 AM to defend science, reason, and high academic standards. Click here for more details from Secular Coalition for America member organization American Atheists, the organizers of this event.

If you don't live in Texas: Forward this email to friends, colleagues, acquaintances, or online social network connections you have who do live in Texas, and tell them that they need to stand up for their state's students.

No matter where you live: Click here to write your Member of Congress now. Click here to write your Member of Congress now. Tell them that if they support national education standards and incentives for math and English, they should support standards that are just as strong for science and history, regardless of pressure from religious extremists.

Educate yourself and others about this issue: Click here to read the Secular Coalition for America's factsheet on national education standards.

I personally believe that if you believe it matters to notify members of Congress you are badly informed. They do not care about what you care about and they do not even care if you know it. This is what happens when Republicans and Democrats are elected. There is only one Ron Paul and he lost.

When I talk to folks about how the real threat to America is Christian fundamentalism, this Texas situation is one of the issues going on, that can truly effect all of our lives in the future.

I remember finding out how horrid the Native Americans were treated, all the while, from as far back as I can remember, Thanksgiving was all a lie. These waco religious folks get the young, except they tell bigger lies.

Sad thing is, when most American say that Muslims are taught from a young age to hate Americans its usually for a good reason: killing innocent folks for instance. But when American Christians prey on the young,,.it is all lies...to teach hatred and other things that have been backed by the bible in the past: woman should be slave to men; blacks are less human than whites, therefore they are not allowed to vote and can be lynched if caught making eye contact with a white woman; gays should have no rights; churches should be tax exempt, and above the law aka getting away with raping children while taxpayers pay to keep the guilty protected; religious private schools should be paid for by the tax dollars of Americans, even when the school teached intolerance racsim and hate aka religion...etc.. im all for banning religion...people are lucky i am not King !

Fruitless as it might seem (in some states more-so than others)... To stop trying is to stop caring, when we stop caring our voice will not be heard, and when our voice is lost we will lose our freedoms.

Within the past decade I've seen an amazing number of us "coming out" as agnostics/atheists, and I think there's a growing resistance to the theists and their crap. I don't know your age but I'm old enough to remember when announcing you were NOT a Christian (let alone an atheist) just was NOT done! Now, the internet allows thousands of us to connect and I predict growing numbers in future! Each scientific discovery pushes back against the myths and superstition...and those discoveries are widely available..again, due to the expansion of communication technologies.

One reason the theists are being so vocal is that they realize they're losing influence.

To James Smith (we're the same age)...don't you notice how much more OPEN we all are now? I was forced to attend church, etc, and went like a willing little sheep because I would've been CASTIGATED if I"d admitted the truth. I remember prayers in school, prayers/hymns when I graduated and being in
I-can't-remember-how-many Christmas pageants because I sang in choir and those were the songs we were taught....nobody EVER spoke up.

BUT--when my daughter was in school, you can bet I spoke up any time they tried teaching hymns, etc!

Can you imagine an outlet like this one, back in the 50s, 60s or even the 70s?